South Korea's crypto market shrinks 33% in first half of 2026, survey finds

The Korea Financial Intelligence Unit and the Financial Supervisory Service released a half-yearly survey on October 1 covering 26 registered virtual asset service providers. The survey found that the market capitalization of crypto listed on domestic exchanges fell 33% to 58.9 trillion won in the first half of 2026. The market was 28.3 trillion won smaller than in the second half of 2025. Average daily trading volume fell 44% to 3.1 trillion won. Won deposits held on exchanges fell 35% to 5.2 trillion won. The survey found that average daily trading volume declined at both won-based and coin-only exchanges. Crypto assets on domestic exchanges recorded a 69% maximum drawdown, compared with 55.1% for KOSPI and 31.8% for KOSDAQ over the same period. The Korea Financial Intelligence Unit measures maximum drawdown as the difference between the highest and lowest price, divided by the highest price. Crypto's maximum drawdown eased from 73% in the second half of 2025. In that earlier half, market capitalization fell 8% and operating profits fell 38%, while deposits rose 31%. Accounts eligible to trade rose 0.4% to 11.175 million in the first half of 2026. Sales across domestic exchanges fell 41%. Combined operating profit dropped 78% to 81.6 billion won from 374.8 billion won in the previous half. Users in their 40s overtook users in their 30s as the largest age group. The number of users holding under 1 million won rose 4% to 8.63 million. Of 234 tokens traded on only one exchange, 93 had market capitalizations of 100 million won or less. The Korea Financial Intelligence Unit warned that such tokens carry liquidity risk and extreme price volatility.